and i understand the impulse behind this. but don't get your hopes up. winning back the house would be one that's hard to see happening for three specific reasons. the first, history. midterm elections just aren't kind to the party. it's not as if the party has won big in some other lost big in others. sometimes a lot of them have been lost. sometimes not that many. in the rare instances where they have made gains, they've been model. the political world was stunned when bill clinton was crowned in 1998. the net gain that year was just five seats. that's not even 1/3 of what democrats need next year. the second factor, geography. democratic coalition. they're growing in numbers. but geographically it's shrinking. backed more into cities. michael dukakis won more

counties across the country than obama won last november. democrats can win in the presidency, but when you cut the country up into districts, republicans are going to have a big advantage. and number three, turnout. that same new democratic coalition has showed up in droves twice now. in 2008 and 2012. but it was nowhere to be seen in 2010 or the key races of 2009. until and unless democrats can generate presidential type excitement in nonpresidential years, they're going to be at a further disadvantage. just because something hasn't happened before, doesn't mean it never will happen. but what obama is planning to pull off would be extraordinary. if democrats do manage to win back the house, there is still the matter of the senate. without 60 votes there even controlling the house is just not going to matter that much. so yes, it definitely makes sense for obama and his party to push hard in 2014. as long as they keep in mind the long odds they're up against and

as long as they have a plan "b" in mind. that does it for "the cycle" today. martin, bashir, take it away. >> thank you. it's wednesday, march 6th. while it may be snowing in washington, there's some signs of a thaw between the president and republicans. ♪ >> in the coming days and weeks i'm going to keep reaching out. >> he's calling people. this is how you solve hard problems. >> i'm hopeful the senate democrats will work with us to make sure there's no threat of government shutdown. >> we now have a lap dog, throw up our leg, ass kissing suckup media. joining me for an interview, republican presidential candidate mitt romney and paul ryan. >> someone eluded to the fact of putting your big boy pants on. come on.

>> the way is to count to ten. >> hold it. now i'm getting teed off at you. because i felt a lot better and i thought a lot clearer. give me one damn program he's -- >> he's cut entitlements. >> not entitlements. one program. vent your anger but be alone when you do it. ♪ good afternoon. it is a very busy wednesday. we're watching multiple stories this hour. in venezuela, thousands turn out to mourn the late president hugo chavez as guards carry his coffin through the streets. an capitol hill a group of senators are in a filibuster in a protest against the drone program. and a winter snowstorm is raking the east coast. shutting down most of the federal government. but while it may be stormy in

washington, there are signs of a thaw in the frigid and glacial relationship. the president will host a party of 12 republican senators at the jefferson hotel this evening. among those attending, john mccain, tom coburn, saxby chambliss, ron johnson, kelly ai yacht, lindsey graham. stoo several republicans in recent days. senator graham on tuesday described his phone call as and i'm quoting, the most encouraging engagement on a big issue i've seen since the early years of hissed. si. get that man an extra glass of his favorite reislin.

a continuing resolution that led to democratic outrage on the floor. >> this is a disgraceful bill. and this process is not on the level. we have a budget that is doubling down on grinding down on the middle class. >> wall street is celebrating while the backs of poor people are been broken. this is not a rule that should pass today. we should remain snowed out. we shouldn't even be here. snow us out until we can get the right kind of balance. >> despite that clear opposition, it did pass keeping in place the sequester cuts while softening the blow for defense naturally. expected to take it up next week saying they'll oppose the measure without a vote to defund the affordable care act. i guess bitterness is always a dish best served cold. while we're on the subject of last year's leftovers, here comes paul ryan.

about to present the republican budget next week. ryan says he got his own phone call from the president and suggested that his plan will push for entitlement reforms. quote, we need to prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation in this country to save these programs. for not just for the current retirees but for the next wave of retirees after that. in an interview with larry kudlow, those programs are very much on the table. >> adjustments for social security and benefit adjustments, means testing for medicare. could those points serve as the basis for a larger deal? >> oh, absolutely. they're going to be on the table. they should be part of the agreement. there's a lot more that needs to be done. >> asked politely by my colleague if he will be attending the dinner, the speaker said nothing.

kristen welker joins us now from the white house. is this a clear indication that the president has frankly given up on speaker boehner and instead is approaching individual senators one by one in the hope of maybe reshaping a grand bargain, something he hoped to achieve two years ago? >> i think that's right. and remember, it also comes against the backdrop of president obama having been criticized for not reaching out to lawmakers. sop i think optics are at play here. but white house officials acknowledge president obama ramping up his outreach to rank and file republicans. and those are going to be attending this dinner tonight have been invited by the president lindsey graham really made this guest list. these are republican who is are perceived as being open or at least willing to talk about compromise when it comes to the budget issues when it comes to averting the sequester. also it's important to open to compromise to things like immigration reform, gun control. those are some of the items that

are going to be on the agenda. but certainly the budget, a grand bargain will be the main course at tonight's dinner when president obama sits down with those 12 republicans. but, of course, this is sort of a larger outreach than we have seen in the past. we expect it to continue in the coming days and weeks. martin. >> kristen welker at the white house, thank you. here in new york is josh barrow and professor james peterson. professor, the president challenging critics who call him aloof and disengaged reaching out to the opposing side offering what's expected to be a real plan of entitlement cuts and new revenues. could tonight be the start of something big? >> well, there's two things going on here. i think kristen was right about the optics. we know the president has reached out to the president multiple times in the past but has gotten rejected a lot of times when he's reached out. now he wants to make this more

public and put more pressure on it. but there's been an important shift here, martin. if you think of it in the ways that petty washington politics works, some people see the fiscal cliff as a victory for the president. you got the $600 billion in revenue. some folks see sequestration as a victory for those on the right. maybe there's clear space here so they can at least talk about the kind of balanced approach to deficit reduction and to getting our economy or continuing to get our economy running in a more sensible way. >> josh, you've repeatedly in your writings critiqued the president for his in your view failure to engage on substantive issues. the question i have for you, though, is are there enough republicans willing to do any deal with this president? because their position has been cuts, cuts, and more cuts. >> i think it's an open question. i think what the president is going for here is a repeat of the deal over the fiscal cliff. the senate republicans have been more pragmatic than the house

republicans. you got a bipartisan deal on the fiscal cliff through the senate and that forced the house republicans' hand. these 12 he's bringing together for the dinner, it's a lot of people who care about the defense cuts in the sequester. want to avert those and are willing to give up something of value. that's why you have kelly ayotte, john mccain those types of people there. i think to the extent he's trying to engage and get a bipartisan deal done, i think this is the right strategy, it's the right people to talk to. >> professor peterson, senator lindsey graham for one has said he'll agree to more revenue if democrats bend the curve as he puts it on entitlements. is tonight's dinner an effort as it were to drive a wedge through the republican caucus in the house and some gop lawmakers who as josh was just saying may be prepared to do a deal with this president? >> i don't know if i want to accuse them of trying to drive a wedge.

but it's been clear from the immediate past that congressman boehner has had a very difficult time in corralling any kind of sort of caucus in the house. and so dealing and working through the senate seems to be as josh was saying, more practical and seems to make more sense. these folk who have their districts at stake in terms of how the sequester -- sequestration is involving military funding. trying to come up with a more balanced approach going forward. it's just more practical. this is a more practical approach to some kind of consensus in washington. >> meanwhile paul ryan has reportedly backed off his plans to make his overhaul of medicare even more accelerated than it was in the previous two budgets that he's proposed. do you think this is an indication that as far as entitlement reform is concerned, even paul ryan realizes the public wound find it difficult to stomach. >> i think he's been getting pushed back in his caucus.

i think they have never been accelerated. the ryan plan has always put off doing anything for ten years. the problem with the ryan plan is it isn't serious about saving money on medicare. because of that and other programs for the poor than the old. i think that's driven by what the republican coalition is. it's basically older people and wealthy people. it makes a lot more sense to cut in aid to the poor programs. i think that remains the same. i think it's going to be very difficult for paul ryan to propose a budget that's appealing and achieves a bunch of balance. >> despite the sequester being enacted, the ryan budget is expected to offer cuts than it recommended last year. i mean, how much more does paul ryan want to cut? >> well, i think, again, because of the revenue that came in off of the fiscal cliff deal, this new ten-year budget is even

possible. they see the possibility of trying to get a balanced budget. but i think this is also optics like you have to kind of appease those on the right. ryan is deeply invested in that. his budget is not going to be very practical. you're going to have to sacrifice either poor folk which they lean more towards that. or sacrifice folk in their constituency which are the older people who are more concerned about playing with the age requirements for medicare. at the end of the day, paul ryan's got to she he's still the budget hawk. but i don't think when we see this budget that that's going to be practical. the president will clearly not sign on to it. where's it going to go? >> that's a good question. where is it going to go, josh? >> it's basically a political document that has been there for several years. >> right. >> as the professor said and i've been hearing this is lot that they can take advantage of the higher revenue line, but i think that's fairly complicated for ryan to do. his budget has thrown out the

tax code and offered a new one. if you're going to say we're going to take advantage of the revenue baseline, you'll have to raise rates. say we'll cut it to whatever will increase the amount of revenue. but i think then he'll get pushback from people on the right side of his caucus saying we want the same tax plan we've been proposing. so i think the play is more difficult for paul ryan than it's been made out to be in the press lately. >> it is. and this is the reason the president is working on the senate. >> indeed. absolutely. thank you both. next, the texas congressman who wants an m-4 in every classroom is at it again. stay with us as rand paul continues to filibuster. >> back in 2007 president obama supported israel with $2.3 billion in foreign military aid. this year president obama wants to bring that down to just $3.1 billion. now, i know it looks like it's going up, but remember, in

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amendment of house resolution 933 offered by mr. gohmert of texas. will insert the following. none of the funds made available by a division of this act may be used to transport the president to or from a golf course until public tours of the white house resume. >> that is the great self-representative louie gohmert in action. a new amendment from the straight talking talking

governor says to prevent the president from playing golf until he brings back tours to the white house. this had us wondering, since when did it become such a crime for the president to play go? i admit to being a relatively new student to presidential history, but i seem to recall it being a frequent past time with dwight eisenhower. he was famous for his love of the game. didn't seem to be a crime when he took out a driver. then there's president nixon, a chief executive who actually did commit crimes in the oval office. but his love of golf never overshadowed watergate. then there's the bushes. both father and son who also enjoyed getting out there on the links. i recall bush the younger fitting in policy announcements around the eighth hole. >> i call upon all nations to do what they can to stop these terrorist killers. thank you. now watch this drive.

>> joining us now is msnbc political analyst michael eric dyson of georgetown university and our man on capitol hill, luke russert. mr. gohmert's amendment to the continuing resolution is d not make it. however, have heard from speaker boehner on this issue of tours to the public. let's take a listen to him. >> it's the idea that we're going to shut down tours at the white house during the easter season when washington's overwhelmed by visitors is just silly. and i want to know who's being laid off at the white house? is this what's going on? all i can say is the capitol is open to visitors. >> so there you go, luke. all is well in the capitol. but doesn't this reveal the petty and personal nature of republican opposition to this president?

>> well, i think it reveals a sort of pettiness on both sides. if you look at what the white house did so far -- >> how is it petty by the president to apply the sequester as it's been imposed? >> the idea is putting that forward there will be no more tours at the white house. who does that stick it to? rank and file congressmen. >> it sticks it to the public. >> correct. the public gets those tours through their congressmen. boehner playing the pr up that he's tweeting out pictures today you can visit the capitol and shows him shaking hands with a tour group from florida. if you look at it from the abstract, sitting in the middle of america tuning in at night you're saying why are they fighting about who can tour the white house, we can tour the capitol. it looks bad on both sides. i think it's a pox on both their houses which is what we're not

supposed to say these days. in this case it's true. we're making light of something that in reality is quite minimal when you put it in the grand scheme of the sequester and everything else. >> okay. professor dyson, we mentioned the legislative effort by louie gohmert. but i wound if if we might take a brief moment to refresh our audience's memory to his other pronouncements. >> you're attacking the messenger. anderson, you're better than this. >> do we really want folks in movie theaters and shopping malls and schools armed? >> chris, i wish to god she had had an m-4 in her office. the allegations are not because he is muslim. i'm not one of those who says he's not a christian. you follow me around the world. you see me hugging muslims around the world. >> so professor, as a scholar whose grasp of this nation's history is firm and clear, why is it that playing golf seemed to be okay for presidents in the past but not for this president?

>> you know, i don't know why the president's golf game is teeing these people off. the reality is if you're familiar with early american history, at least the history of the 1950s. remember gohmert pile? shazam. they see golf and spell it flog backwards. every time they say golf, they're flogging the president. they think they're doing the right thing. it's ridiculous. it's inane. it's vapid. it's any other collaboration between words you can generate to suggest we're wasting the time and the resources of the american government trying to put a rider on a bill to suggest that mr. obama not play golf when the reality is that republicans are driving us deeper and deeper into serious problems because of their refusal to negotiate. and the sequestration is just

the most recent system of that. >> flogged, you're right, sir. luke, there's a new book out by bob nee. he seems to think that speaker boehner is pretty fond of golf himself. in fact, he says and i'm quoting. that if the justice department were ever to make speaker boehner produce receipts for his addiction to golf just for the years from '95 to 2004, he would be hard pressed to comply. of course the speaker denies the accusations made in this book, but he can't deny he likes to play golf himself, doesn't he? >> oh, i don't think it's a secret to anyone in washington, d.c. and the capitol that john boehner is an avid golfer. he's a pretty talented golfer. >> given the amount of time he plays, he ought to be. >> certainly. goes down to florida to do it. now, in terms of mr. ney, they

have pressed back saying he's a convicted felon, does not know what he speaks of. but john boehner is a talented golfer. he'd be the first one to tell you that if you got him on the show. >> professor, i'm sure the president will reluctantly give up playing golf, but it's going to be tough for everyone else, isn't it? for families to survive without assistance for nutrition, for families to cope without transportation for their disabled children. these are the kind of things that are going to hurt, aren't they? >> yeah. it's not the game of golf. it's the game of pool. they're behind the eight ball. american people are being, i think in a very serious sense, pushed into holes of want depravation and poverty. that sounds extreme, but the reality is when this sequestration goes through, when those budget cuts take effect, the poorest of the poor will be vulnerable. those whose backs are against the wall will be pushed into e the bricks further. and the reality is the golf games of the president or the speaker of the house are just ancillary to a central issue. and that is the inability to

come to grips here. and you said something earlier that we should underscore. the republicans proved they are incapable of negotiating in good conscience with the president. they have a revulsion to him that is now harming the nation. it's one thing for their caucuses and for their party to find him reprehensible, but it's another thing for that to spill over into and bleed over into the business of the people. their very emotional reactions to the president are harming up politically. and the american people are going to pay a price for that. >> professor michael eric dyson and luke russert, gentlemen, thank you so much. coming up, gabby giffords in an emotional return to a place where so many lives were changed fefr. stay with us. >> gabby inspires me each and every day. every single day. you know, often as she heads off to therapy one of the last things she'll say to me is fight, fight, fight.

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snowfall, it's turned out to be a rowdy day on capitol hill with senator rand paul of kentucky leading an old fashioned filibuster, speak until you can speak no more, going on for nearly five hours now. paul rose as a quarter to -- and with a little help from senate colleagues, it hasn't stopped yet. stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you measure happiness? by the armful? by the barrelful? the carful? how about...by the bowlful?

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his shameful record of never visiting israel by visiting israel. >> our goal here is to cut spending, not to shut down the government. >> if they tell you everything's awful, tell them no it's not. >> we're back, baby. it only took wall street and the industry five and a half years to self-repair the gaping wound they self-inflicted. >> about half of the people infected die. >> i'm hopeful the senate democrats will work with us to make sure there's no threat of government shutdown. >> we will preserve the spending reductions of the sequester. >> let's get specific rather than this b.s. >> this budget has adopted a notion that austerity is a goal. >> they're going to shut off white house tours. >> who's being laid off at the white house? >> so childish. i mean, really? >> entiemts, you're lying here. >> we welcome the people to come to the capitol. >> can we get back to the old model of discriminating first and stopping it later?

will you please tell the justice scalia for me, come see me on the program. >> i have supported both the path to legalization or a path to citizenship. >> wait for a few minutes and see how jeb bush changes his mind again. >> we've got to figure those that care about the traditional way this country was able to create the american dream. >> i've never seen it done with just a mask on. >> a welding mask. >> then i got angry. very angry. >> he is compromising. >> no. that's not specific. give me one damn program. control the anger prp count to ten. this is bull bank. vent your anger. but be alone when you do it. yes, indeed. >> let's get right to our panel now. krystal ball is the cohost of "the cycle" and jonathan capehart is a political write for the washington post.

thank you for rushing from the station right here. i'll allow you to catch your breath. krystal, we'll get to mr. o'reilly in a moment, but let's start with the latest manifestation of civil war in the gop and donald trump. obama m bob macdonald snubbed. chris christie snubbed. is donald trump for the rebranding? >> mitt romney, sarah palin, alan west. >> the only one missing yet to receive an invite, herman cain. >> it is. that's unfortunate. i think he could hold the way forward for the republican party. i'm from virginia as you know. bob mcdonnell is no -- he's a conservative guy. i mean, you recall the whole transvaginal ultrasound situation. >> who could forget that? >> right. but he committed a sin against conservatism which was raising

taxes for the infrastructure. the state has some of the worst traffic in the country. chris christie km itted the sin of embracing the president and saying nice things about him. apparently this is unforgivable in their world. you have to be happy not to go to this conference which seems like a clown car like the gop primary. >> interestingly the only road accident i've had in this country was in martinsville, virginia. because of the condition of the roads. john, the washington examiner is a cosponsor of next week's cp a rks c. they have a new editorial. it's called cpac embarrasses conservatives with trump invitation. for conservatives reeling from obama's re-election and seeking a serious conversation about the future of the conservative movement, this year's cpac may not be the place to find it. it's come to something when a co-sponsor of an event ends up attacking the event they're co-sponsoring. >> yes. as we were discussing, who are

these people showing up at cpa kr rks? >> they are the future of the party. and it was said they've had stellar years. all star team. >> yeah. fine. okay. but i seem to recall there being analysis out there that cpac isn't the party. it's part of the party. and that we have to make these distinctions. and, you know, if i were a member of the gop, i would say great. cpac, you're over there. fine. take donald trump. take michele bachmann. take sarah palin. take all these folks coming in to spout off a lot of things that most of the country doesn't agree with and that most of the country rejected in the 2012 election. >> this is a trough of some of the most hateful people who said some of the most hateful things during the last election cycle. >> yeah. i don't know how -- >> if they're part of the republican party, perhaps they've isolated the part of the republican party that should be left behind so that they can

move forward. perhaps it serves that purpose. >> newt gingrich is also scheduled to speak at cpac. he was on laura ingraham's radio show. take a listen to their exchange. >> what do you think about inviting the go proud group which is the gay republican group or chris christie? should all these people get invited or is it just not a big thing either way? >> i don't know what the purpose of cpac is anymore. >> let me repeat his response. i don't know what the purpose of cpac is anymore. what is the purpose of cpa kr rkrc? >> they're doing everything to not be relevant in how to move the republican party forward. if you're sending out the signal where they just lost, they were not able to attract enough people to their side. certain ideas aren't wanted. certain ideologies aren't wanted. that's a way to shrink the party rather than make it bigger.

i don't think all conservatives are in line with what cpac is doing. that's encouraging because we need a party that has ideas and has a future to make the country and our democracy more competitive. we are certainly not going to get that from cpac this year. >> cpac this year proves it's an improve group. so exclusive that many can't get in. the people signing the brief calling for same-sex marriage in the united states, they should break off and have their own conference where the ideals behind conservatismeryone who w mantle of conservatism. what's happening with cpac is an abomination. and that's coming from me, mr. progressive, mr. liberal. >> thank you so much. coming up, jeb bush and immigration. fool us once, shame on -- oh. i'll let them tell us.

>> let's wait for a few minutes and see how jeb bush changes his mind again. his opinion on immigration is not evolving, it's devolving. i think he's frankly made a fuel of himself the last 24 hours. >> fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. fool me -- you can't get fooled again. [ female announcer ] does your color have staying power... or just seem to fade away, day by day? don't compromise. new vidal sassoon pro series from the original salon genius. starts vibrant, stays vibrant. precision mix formula saturates each strand for 100% gray coverage. hydrablock conditioner helps fight fade out for up to 8 weeks. new vidal sassoon lets you say no to compromise and yes to vibrant color like this. new vidal sassoon pro series salon genius. brilliantly priced.

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she is back. >> julian epstein is a democratic strategist and former chief minority council to the committee. julian, it's impossible to imagine how hard it was for gabby giffords to return to the scene of that horror. but her insistence may be paying off. jeff flake joined lindsey graham and democrats pryor and baggage to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns. that's two bipartisan gun bills in two days. that's not small beer is it? >> no, it's not. and i think your first point is right. it's traumatic for any victim of a shooting to go back to the scene of a crime. anyone with experience in trauma will tell you that. she shouldn't have to go back to the scene of the crime to get

congress to act. the good news, however, i had a breakfast conversation with senator blumenthal about this yesterday. the good news is the politics are shifting rapidly. you're seeing not just the two things you alluded to. not clear what will happen on the floor. if it doesn't get passed on the floor but it becomes a big game pain issue. if you look at the congressman who's running for re-election in aurora, this has become the single biggest issue in that re-election. and he will likely -- i think he will likely lose because he has basically become an nra stooge. >> he has a high rating from the nra. >> he has an a-plus rating. they are shifting quickly. used to be shifting at a glacial pace. colorado house just passed sweeping gun control measures. the circuit court as we discussed last week reminded

everybody that the second amendment could quote the conservative supreme court in no way casts a doubt over any of these proposals we've been talking about. so i think we're seeing rapid change. and the one thing that gabby's visit to tucson reminds us as senator blumenthal pointed out to me yesterday is that the tucson incident like the newtown incident points out that background checks as important as they are are not going to be enough. because background checks would not have stopped what happened in newtown or tucson. but an assault weapons ban would have limited the carnage. >> gabe zimmerman was killed that day as was 9-year-old kristina taylor green. family members spoke if had from the heart. take a listen. >> a civics lesson was turned into a nightmare. i lost a play mate. my friends lost their daughter. >> it's very hard for me to be here today.

here where my son was gunned down. here where his body lied on that sidewalk for many hours. dead. >> do you think, julian, that people in congress will find it easy to listen to that kind of testimony and say no to sensible regulations? >> i don't. that's why i think you and other folks in the media have an important job. you put a magnifying glass on this. like when the father of a victim in newtown speaks out, this is what it's about. i asked you to get people like dr. begg on the show to talk about exactly what that scene was like and the kind of damage that assault weapons bring into our streets all the time. the kind of damage that just background checks alone will never stop. this is what this is about. that's why i think the media has such an important role. again, much credit has to go to the president for this.

because of the president keeping this center front, that focuses people on it. >> thank you for your contributions on the subject as well. thank you. next immigration and 2016. but first sue herrera has the market wrap. >> good afternoon, martin. it was another historic day on wall street. here's a look at how stocks finished going into tomorrow morning's session. well, once again we have a new record high in the dow jones industrials average. up 42 points. a strong gain for the s&p. and the nasdaq finished down two points. that's it for cnbc first in business worldwide. martin is back after a quick break. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early,

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jeb bush may have upended the outcome of 2016 and immigration reform after he couldn't nail down which talking point at which hour on which day

was the one he believed at any particular moment. he was for a pathway to citizenship and then he was against it and finally he was for one were or maybe not. joining us now is joaquin castro of texas. goomp, sir. >> good afternoon. >> do you understand jeb bush's understanding of a pathway to citizenship? i have spent the last 24 hours reading his book and watching his interviews. i am completely confused. >> i was surprised a few nights ago when he seemed to come out against a path to citizenship and instead for permanent residency. then the next morning seeming to change course. tafs confusing moment. >> and it's inkick ty of the republican party in general. because we're not their position is on this issue. >> that's right. if you look at the republican caucus, they are all over the

place. there is probably i would suspect a third of them that would support a path to citizenship at this point. but there are some of the most powerful republicans in the caucus and house of representatives including the chairman of the judiciary committee who are against the path to citizenship. they're across the board. >> now, politico says that more than 114 republican house members represent districts with nearly no hispanics whatsoever. speaker boehner says today he won't break the hastert rule. meaning they need a majority of republicans to pass anything. are you worried that once we get close to 2016, it will be more difficult to pass on this issue. >> i'm hopeful because there's still a lot of momentum to get comprehensive reform done and a path to citizenship in that.

i think more reasonable minds will prevail. i think this is something republicans understand that the country agrees with, a path to citizenship. we know that 55% to 60% of americans support a path to citizenship. so i think in the end and i'm hopeful in the end it's something that will get done. >> you were asked what the president could have done better in the sequester talks. and your answer has gotten some pickup online. you're quoted as saying, i think he needs to be a leader in the negotiation. what did you mean by that? it struck us that he was consistently saying that he wanted a balanced approach. >> no. that's right. the president has been very vocal about where he stands. this is a president that has accomplished $2.5 trillion in debt reduction. and i think the president is doing what he needs to do. we know last friday he met with a group of republicans. tonight he's meeting with a group of 11 republican senators. so i think this is a congress as you know, martin, that has still

got vestages of that tea party crowd that needs to be prodded and pushed along. and i think we're seeing the president do that. >> sir, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. ♪ snot acceler-rental. at a hertz expressrent kiosk, you can rent a car without a reservation... and without a line. now that's a fast car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. some people will do anything to help eliminate litter box odor. ♪ discover tidy cats pure nature. clumping litter with natural cedar, pine, and corn.

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